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Minor Faction Logistics
Ore is found throughout basically the entire world as different kinds of valuable metals and other extractable resources. From the jungles of Vietnam to the Arabian dunes, basically every military faction competes for control of the vital ore extraction points found in a battlefield. While most major factions would instantly outcompete minor factions for ore, in areas where no major factions exist, the minor factions expand their reach through control of the usage. ARVN ARVN Refinery Thanks to their alliance with the Allies, ARVN forces have stepped into the 20th century with on-site ore mining and refining facilities at the front, though ARVN refineries are not quite as advanced as they would like. Battlewagon "Clear the way!" :- Battlewagon Driver Tactical Analysis *'Heavy duty collector': The Battlewagon is the ARVN's solution to ore collection in war-torn Vietnam. Its thick armour makes it resistant to attacks, and its weapons allow it to defend itself against Vietcong ambush. *'Support on-site': However, the Battlewagon is not just armed with any one fixed weapon. Instead, it has a protected bunker at the front of the vehicle. While this bunker can only hold one person, that person can fire out, making the Battlewagon an improvised Multigunner vehicle of sorts. Of course, the soldier may exit the vehicle at any time, as long as the Battlewagon stays on land. *'Undermanned': There is a downside to this, though. While such a system gives the Battlewagon considerable flexibility, it has the disadvantage of leaving the Battlewagon vulnerable without any infantry inside. *'Clear the way': Some Battlewagons have large dozer blades mounted at the front. In addition to providing additional protection, this also allows the Battlewagon to clear minefields away. Background The ARVN Salamander is one of the more "interesting" modifications made to the standard Retriever APC chassis, though if you ever said such a phrase to an Allied Nations observer in Vietnam they would remind you of the collateral damage they've been responsible for causing. Despite its effectiveness, the ARVN leadership did not want to go too far in pushing the Allies' patience, and the Salamander was quietly phased into positions that were not so easily observed by Allied officials. This still left the ARVN forces with a number of Retriever APC chassis that were, to be put bluntly, useless in the terrain of Vietnam. However, a solution was found in a somewhat unexpected way. Allied command had been sending Prospectors by the dozens to Vietnam to be used in mining ore for the South Vietnamese government, but found it nearly impossible to safely protect both the ore refineries and subsequent operations made to protect them. Prospector armour was simply too thin, and defensive tactics too focused on Soviet tactics to quickly adapt to Vietcong strategies of drawing defenders out of position and then launching an ambush from an unexpected angle. Such tactics would leave the unarmed Prospectors vulnerable, allowing the Vietcong to destroy them with ease. With losses piling up at a shocking speed, several officers were charged with finding a suitable replacement. Quickly, they arrived at the conclusion that the replacement vehicle should have several traits; thick, durable armour, a large carrying capacity, and most importantly, an armament. The question, however, was what to arm it with; rockets, while effective against vehicles, were too inaccurate to deal with Vietcong foot soldiers effectively. Machine guns, on the other hand, would be effective against infantry, but poor against the increasing number of vehicles the Vietcong were putting up. It was theorised that a foe like the Vietcong would quickly adapt their tactics to whatever weapons they armed their replacement ore collector with, and there were only so many weapons they could mount on the vehicle without comprising its ore carrying capacity. Eventually, they found a solution. The Retriever chassis was selected for the task of conversion, with its thick, durable armour and large passenger capacity. The passenger compartment was essentially gutted, converted into an impromptu ore bin, while the machine gun at the front of the vehicle were stripped away to make room for a one man bunker with a modular weapon slot. The idea was that a soldier could use the bunker as a protected firing position to fire on hostile forces. While this would leave the collector vulnerable in the event that there was no one inside the bunker, it allowed for far more flexibility than if the ARVN had mounted a fixed weapon. This turned out to work to the ARVN's advantage, with a Vietcong strike on an ARVN ore operation was turned back when the Retriever suddenly spat out a long tongue of flame that torched the Vietcong out of cover. Renamed Battlewagons, these newly modified APCs found new life, both as ore collectors on the frontlines where the Prospectors could not safely operate, and as makeshift armoured support that could adapt to any situation. While accepted by Allied observers, they still note that the vehicle could be used as an impromptu flamethrower tank, as well as calling for all Salamanders to be accounted for. ARVN command has promised that such action would be taken "soon". Just the Stats Weapon Options Vietcong NVA Smelter Soviet-designed smelters provide most of the raw materials used by the NVA to fuel their war effort. VC forces become much more dangerous when they can be convinced to allow one to be erected locally, though they often mourn the loss of the neighborhood's rustic appeal and protest its environmental impact, which has caused the NVA to consider a switch to all-natural, cruelty-free ore. Supply Truck In spite of the fact that they are generally under-supplied and equipped in comparison to the enemies that the fight, the Viet Cong has been able to inflict great damage upon the South Vietnamese armed forces and the Allies, using their guerrilla tactics, determination and familiarity with the terrain to counter the advantages of superior equipment and logistical support that the ARVN and the Allies possess. Considering the disproportionate amount of damage a VC force supported by nothing more than bicycle couriers from nearby villages could inflict on well equipped, well trained Allied Reservist forces, some have pondered how effective the Viet Cong would be in the scenario that they were well supplied and armed. Until recently, such a scenario was an entirely hypothetical one. However, with the disastrous defeats suffered by the NVA in the wake of the Allied intervention in the Vietnam War, and the sudden resurgence of the Viet Cong, North Vietnam has been increasing its support for the Viet Cong in the hopes that they will inflict severe casualties on the Allied and South Vietnamese forces, hopefully allowing the NVA to regain the upper hand. To this end, the NVA has been increasingly supplying the VC with supplies, ammunition, spare parts, and local microbrews, transported by Supply Trucks driving up and down the Ho Chi Minh trail. Indeed, with the NVA aiding the Viet Cong in the construction of smelters for the refining of ore, NVA Supply Trucks have also been seeing increasing use with the Viet Cong, as ore collection and transportation vehicles. Reliable and speedy, these Supply Trucks serve the Viet Cong well. Additionally, they can be easily and quickly disguised to look like a part of the jungle to hide them from ARVN or Allied forces, though the telltale glint that ore gives off means that it is usually dumped by Supply Truck drivers so that it doesn't give them away. Red China Red Chinese Hellgate Before the Bombs As the need for resources in the seemingly endless Chinese Civil War grew more and more intense it isn't surprising that the same taboo and dark science that would create some of the most disturbing weapons ever to disgrace the face of the earth would also try to come up with a solution to the resource problem. For the Red Chinese the answer came in the form of the Hellmouth, which some would say was an abomination like no other, however when it comes to recycling everything from metal to human beings it was pretty damn good at what it did, so it's not surprising that they tried to scale it down. The end result is the Hellgate, which is constructed using junkyard magnets that have been electrically supercharged as much as possible. While it can't rip apart organic matter like its bigger brother, the Hellgate is capable of ripping the ore out of the rocks as well as small vehicles just fine, which was considered a reasonable trade-off for its small size, this fact combined with it being relatively easy to operate meant that by the time the bombs fell every red chinese base had at least one Hellgate on-site. After the Bombs While nearly all Hellgates were destroyed when the bombs fell, surprisingly there were more than enough spare parts to rebuild them many times over. The reason for this was to make sure they would remain in continuous operation with minimal downtime, such was the massive demand for resources before the bombs fell, however despite all the spare parts red chinese warlords are extremely protective of their Hellgates welding on whatever extra metal they have to increase their durability since no more extra parts are being made, so much so that whenever red chinese warlords attack each other great care is taken not to damage them, such is their usefulness in the desolate wasteland that China has become. Powering them was an issue, however the warlords solve that problem the same way they solve powering their cargo trucks, large numbers of mutant animals on large treadmill dynamos, the mutants were also frequently rotated on and off power duty to ensure that they don't die from exhaustion, and are usually fed leftovers, human waste, and the occasional disobedient soldier, so now while even more disturbing than they were before the bombs the Hellgates of red China continue their grim duty. Cargo Truck Before the Bombs To maintain a full-scale war effort for decades, as both Blue and Red China did during the Chinese Civil War, would be an undertaking of leviathan proportions. For both sides, the war would demand staggering quantities of resources; ore, fuel, manpower, food; all of these things the Blue and Red Chinese needed greatly and all of these things they took from the land until they found there was nothing left. Manpower they simply conscripted from the villages and towns and cities, or forced to work in the factories until they dropped; when there wasn't enough Blue China started reusing bodies, while Red China simply made new ones. Food was demanded from the farmers, to feed the soldiers fighting the war; if there wasn't enough everyone else simply starved. Fuel was pumped from the ground until the oil wells dried up; both sides began looking into alternatives when their supplies of gasoline and diesel began to run low. Ore was strip mined out of the ground and refined into metal to forge more tanks; once the mines could no longer provide enough the Red Chinese turned to their Hellmouths to recycle machines and men. In all these efforts to gather more resources for the war effort, one vehicle eventually became critical to Red Chinese logistics; the K-77 Supply Truck, also known as the Cargo Truck. Though mostly unremarkable, it had the advantages of being reliable, fast, and cheap (even more so when the Red Chinese trimmed out all the "unnecessary features" of the design, such as replacing the window glass with screens and the seats with a simple metal bench). The original fleet was provided by the Soviets in the earlier days of the war, and when it was found that there weren't enough trucks Red China turned to the simple expedient of making more. As the decades went by the Red Chinese continued to use them in greater numbers; to transport food and ammunition and fresh bodies to the frontlines; to carry ore from the mines to the smelters and oil from the wells to the refineries. When the mines ran low and suitable bodies began running out, Cargo Trucks began to be used for a more macabre purpose, bringing dead corpses and wrecked tanks to the Hellmouths to be ripped apart and reused. By 1968, Red China had more Cargo Trucks than Battlemasters. After the Bombs Given the scarcity of resources in China post-nuclear exchange, it is not that surprising that the survivors of the bombs fight tooth and nail for the few scraps and leftovers that are still there. While some seek the protection and supplies that the warlords or the Atomic Chinese can provide, and a few try to go it alone, just as many have turned to banditry, stealing from others and hoarding for themselves. With these bandits, Red China's old Cargo Trucks found a new purpose. Though some bandits could simply stash away any ill gotten gains in their own vehicles, the more successful found that their Battlemasters didn't have the space to carry away an entire village's possessions. With Cargo Trucks one of the most common vehicles in the wastelands, many bandits turned to using them to transport their spoils. They weren't the only groups making use of them, either; groups travelling in the blasted landscape or even those who chose to remain loyal to the Red Chinese military (or what's left of it) also employ Cargo Trucks, as there are few better alternatives. Aside from the Atomic Kingdom, only the Blue Chinese and those of their number who have broken away to become warlords refuse to employ the trucks, as they are of Communist manufacture. Of course, with fuel being scarce as it is, there is precious little available for the Cargo Trucks in use. However, one Red Chinese warlord, a former army engineer, came up with an ingenious solution. By rigging up a crude battery and hooking it up to the engine, the truck could be slowly propelled forward, with the batteries being recharged by crude dynamos powered by rats that have grown to unusual size due to the radiation, or by the driver (with the aid of some pedals). The diesel engine could still be used in emergencies, but otherwise it could be left off. Despite the almost nonexistent level of communication, other Red Chinese warlords managed to hear about this ingenious solution and quickly began modifying their own cargo trucks in the same way, so now although at a greatly reduced speed Red Chinese cargo trucks continue providing supplies for various warlords, although any nonemergency use of diesel result in a savage beating at best, or at worst being fed to the giant rats that recharge the batteries. Category:Features Category:Vietnam